Monday, July 13, 2009

AHMEDABAD : The city got its first official ragging case to go into police records after a student of Gujarat College accused his seniors of asking him to dance naked on the first day of college.

Pawan Tiwari, a first year student of BCom, lodged a complaint at the Ellisbridge police station stating that three of his seniors made him strip and dance and when he refused, they beat him up. Tiwari has given no names in his complaint.

The incident took place on Saturday. "In the application, Tiwari has said he has cleared his Class XII in May and Saturday was his first day in college. He had finished two lectures earlier in the day and was standing on the college premises when three students approached him and asked what year and faculty he was in," said a police source.

"After learning Tiwari was from the first year, they asked him to mimic the professor who took the last class. He refused to do that following which the youths asked him to strip and dance for them. When he declined, the group of youth beat him up. After this, Tiwari approached the college authorities and went to meet the principal. Since the principal was not around, the office staff said they would not be able to help him out and that he should approach the police," said the source.

Ellisbridge police inspector HM Kundaliya said, "We have received the complaint. Tiwari has not given any names in his complaint but says that he knows them by face. A team will visit the college with Tiwari on Monday and carry out probe."

When contacted, the in-charge principal of Gujarat College Gopalsingh Rao confirmed the incident. Rao said, "The boy met me after he had already gone to the police. I asked him to give an application to me also, but he did not know the names of the boys who beat him up. They could also be people from outside the college, though the incident happened on the campus. If the student produces names, I will lodge a police complaint myself. Since I had to leave for a meeting, I asked vice-principal Geeta Trivedi to look into the matter."